Done by the Forces of Nature

What a silly cover. But it fits the content. Just hip hop. It's not music. It's like a lecture or a speech with some kind of rhythm booming in the background. At least the listener wasn't constantly shouted at on this album. 1/5

I’m glad i listened to this one as it’s probably important. I heard De La and Tribe called quest mentioned so many times I was just wishing i was listening to them instead. Qtip came on on one song too that was cool.

I don’t know, the lyrics were unexpected for me, but kinda funny and sometimes just positive stuff which is nice, but you know a little too positive? Also the mixing was all over the place. Loved the samples tho.
High 3 i think.

Cool album. Always been a fan of the Native Toungues collective, just never the biggest Jungle Brothers fan

Done By The Forces Of Nature is a pretty solid hip-hop album. I was pretty surprised to see that many other hip-hop artists from this era worked on this album including Queen Latifah, De La Soul and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. The album itself does it's job fairly well with some of the instrumentals being pretty cool and catchy but some were a bit too minimalist. The rapping and lyrics themselves are kinda typical for an album from this time period so nothing that really makes it better or worse than all of it's contemporaries. This is a pretty good album but i wouldn't say that i have a special reason to recommend it.
Best Song: J.Beez Comin' Through
Worst Song: Sunshine

No está mal. Es interesante oír samples que se usan en este disco y que se han vuelto a usar, aunque no sé si son originales de este, como el "It begins in Africa". Me he guardado "Sunshine" y debería volver a escucharlo porque hay cosas interesantes.

Was blown away by this one...a Native Tongues group I hadn't had exposure to before. Really, really liked it...almost as well as any Tribe album. 4.5/5

Rap not for me

Not bad for an album that's not even on Spotify

Definitely a precursor to groups like Tribe, Jurassic 5 and Arrested Development.

The sampling and beats are up and down, some shine. But the positive vibes make the record work.

Eerder schreef ik al over mijn waardering van de de meer relaxte rap in tijden dat alles rauw was. Van Tribe Called Quest en De La Soul mochten we al genieten. Zij kunnen niet zonder de Jungle Brothers genoemd worden. De JB's waren niet alleen eerder. Ze boden ook met Black is Black de kennismaking met Q-Tip. En een stijl die wel heel veel weg heeft van De La Soul. Op dat zelfde album stond I'll House You, wat volgens mij de eerste wereldoverende rap-house hit was en een tweede hit Because I Got it Like That. Tot slot geven ze een lesje sampelen met een ziel met bijvoorbeeld On the Run.

En je raadt het al. Het wijze comité heeft voor dit voor de hand liggende debutalbum juist weer niet gekozen....Maar voor het tweede album. Nou, dat is ook wel leuk. ...

A somewhat neglected group from the Native Tongues, Jungle Brothers epitomize the best of nineties creativity in the hip-hop format. It's party music, in its own way, but it also swaggers a literariness that could be called poetry, but in fact resembles something older in quality: 'Shake your butt but don't break your back / Tap your feet and let your fingers snap'; 'All you read about is slavery / Never 'bout the Black man's bravery.' It's the combination of body-positivity and mental-positivity that makes this album an exemplar release - whether they're rapping about 'Belly Dancin' Dina' and being 'junglistically horny' or how 'the oppressed will be saved from oppression,' their pedagogy is inseparable from the dance floor.

Feel good beats and playful,. political, afro-centric rhymes, but pretty repetitive and too long.

Its fine - maybe a bit overrated.

Ja, ist ganz geiler 90er HipHop, aber mags lieber vereinzelt, ein ganzes Album ist dann auch irgendwann anstrengend.
2 Sterne

Another day, another hip hop album. At least this one doesnt sound too bad.

I hadn’t heard of the Jungle Brothers before. From what I gather, they were the first hip hop group to work with a house music producer, establishing the progressive rap sound that would be identified with the likes of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. In fact, members of those groups showed up on the penultimate track of this album “Doin’ Our Own Thang” alongside a young Queen Latifah, since they all knew each other from high school.

The rest of Done by the Forces of Nature is a collection of funky hip hop tunes with solid production, eclectic sample choices and Afrocentric lyrics that are largely about having a good time but also meant to empower black people and spread that positivity to those marginalized.

I’d say my only complaint with this album is the runtime. Clocking in at just over an hour, it does run long enough where halfway through songs start to blend into one another with little distinction, save for one or two songs with samples I recognized.

Overall, I did have a fun time with Done by the Forces of Nature, and can appreciate how far intellectual rap has come from roots like this. In that regard, it is getting a solid recommendation.

The Good: There are lions in the jungle…
The Bad: The lion hasn’t been able to eat anything for a while, and it’s getting hungry…
The Ugly: I guess the mess the lion will leave behind once he’s able to kill something…

Yes, as you can tell, there isn’t much positive I can say about this album. I have had to sit through 4 hip-hop albums this week, and thought this one isn’t the worst of them all, my level of irritation is.

So please, if you happen to belong to the fan club of Jungle Brothers, don’t cry about my low score… cry about the poor family of whomever it was that the lion ate!

1*

me pegou num dia ruim gostei nao

A classic of the golden age, when everyone involved in hip-hop knew the four elements - and used them to elevate their blocks, boroughs, and cities.

Really nice in concept. I love the golden age hip hop in combinations with African beats and themes. I found myself longing for more pronounced African influence though, it doesn’t feel as apparent as I would like it to be.